The fear of the Lord (4)

'God is outrageous in blessing people who fear Him', I wrote in my previous post. Now, we don't fear the Lord because we want to be blessed (although that would be a good reason), we fear Him because He is God!

I know that sounds too simple. But the Bible says we should fear Him because He is the Creator. Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him. For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command (Psalm 33:8-9).

We should fear Him because He is holy. Who will not fear you, Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy (Revelation 15:4).

We should fear Him because He is great among many other gods and idols He stands out. There is only One like Him. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! He is to be feared above all gods (Psalm 96:4).

And maybe most of all, we should fear Him because He is love! He loved us before we loved Him. He gave His Son to die for a sinful world. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him (Psalm 103:11).

Fearing God means giving Him the awe and respect He deserves. We are called to fear God, not people!

Pure religion

If I were to ask you to define the word religion, what would you come up with?

I have to be honest with you; religion has gotten such a bad name that I have caught myself saying "no, no, I am not religious, I am a Christian..." Needless to say that doesn't mean a thing to the sceptic I am having the conversation with. I decided to look it up in my Penguin English dictionary:

[Rilijon] n belief in and worship of God or gods; specified system of theology, ritual and morality based on this; outlook and way of life based on this...

Way of life... that caught my attention. Religion is not a system, a theory or even a set of rituals, it is a way of life.  It is not a bad word if we allow it to jump off the page and become alive, if we choose it as a way of life. This week I was reading James 1:27 and was surprised at the simplicity of his description, Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

James shares two principles that define the content of true and pure religion (genuine devotion to God):

1. benevolent love for the people in need, and
2. a holy life

I wonder how difficult we have made 'our' religion sometimes...

What do virgin birth & rebirth have in common?

Holy child and holy life

A few weeks ago I was working on a Dutch article about the danger of calling certain biblical events myths; the virgin birth for example. The fact that we don't really understand how that happened is no reason to label it as fiction. While thinking about divine birth I began to wonder if the people who struggle to accept the virgin birth are the same people who have trouble with rebirth. Well, maybe they are not... but it made me think about the subject once again.

Rebirth is a difficult subject for many Christians and without doubt a weird concept for unbelievers. If, for whatever reason, the subject comes to the table we often end up pointing to the discussion Jesus had with Nicodemus. Nothing wrong with that scripture of course, but I believe the Bible has much more to say about the subject. During the following weeks I began to scribble some notes and corresponding schriptures in my journal based on 1 Peter 1:3, In his great mercy he has given us new birth... and I would like to share them in this blogpost, hoping it will help you to get a fresh perspective on the birth of Jesus as well as on your own new birth.

• The apostel John wrote about Jesus and our rebirth in John 1:12-13, To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.
• In his first letter John made it even more clear, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 John 5:1). Naturally we are born of a human being, but spiritually we are born of God.
• The apostel Peter had something to say about divine birth too, You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God (1 Peter 1:23). We are born again of imperishable seed, that is God's seed, or the Holy Spirit.
• In 1 John 3:9 we read the following, No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him. There we have it again, God's seed, the same seed that conceived Jesus, remains in us.

As the Holy Spirit came over Maria she conceived the holy child Jesus. In Matthew 1:20 the angel of the Lord explained to Joseph how that happened, ...what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. In the same way the Holy Spirit will come over us and conceive new life in us, a born again spirit. Virgin birth is not a myth, it is a miracle from God and it is not too difficult to see how it runs parallel with spiritual rebirth. The virgin birth was necessary in order to conceive a holy child, our rebirth is necessary to conceive a new holy nature in us, Gods nature. I am forever thankful that Jesus went before me to make it possible for human beings to be born of God! What a rich and full Christmas message that is!